Column for Dec. 3, 2009

For the past 20 years, I have been hearing the term, "racial reconciliation". In many regards, I believe that this nation has come a long way since the Jim Crow era. For the sake of simplicity and this column, let us say that the term "racial reconciliation" will only be applicable to Negroes and Caucasians.

This so-called reconciliation can not be a one way street. By definition, two parties can not reconcile if one is not willing to do so. Within the past week or so, I have seen two examples of this very premise. One is local, the other is on a national scale. Let me first tackle the local episode.

I wrote last week about Mr. Harris Jenkins' appeal to the Johnston County Board of Elections. I wrote that I thought the idea that Selma Elementary School being too far to travel as a polling place was ridiculous. A reader commented to me via email that I was possibly mistaken and that the complaint was about the polling location at Selma Baptist Church. Thank you for the communication, by the way. I greatly appreciate the feedback.

I was going by the printed news reports in newspapers and one radio station in the county. Within the past week, one news report said, "Jenkins, who ran for mayor in Selma, said the town's two polling places were too hard for some of his supporters to reach." That pretty much supports what I wrote.

Here is how this ties into racial reconciliation. The argument was basically made that minorities and the poor were disenfranchised with the allegedly distant polling places. But wait, it get better. According to one news report, it was alleged that "the lack of minorities working at another polling location affected the outcome". A lack of minorities working the polls? I quote myself from last week. "This is a joke, right?" Why not quote myself again? "You have got to be kidding me!"

What in the world does the color of the skin of a poll worker have to do with whether or not someone will cast a vote? If someone is so petty as to allow that to affect the decision of whether or not to vote, I don't want that person to vote at all. The country will be better off that way.

Personally, I like the idea that the poll workers are the same faces each time I cast a ballot and that they know me by name when I walk through the door. They work all day long every election day, and I have no idea if they are even paid for their efforts. I suspect that if more minorities actually volunteered their time, then perhaps more minorities would be working at the polling location(s).

The national disgrace to which I refer is the foolhardy Jesse Jackson, Sr. Supposedly he bears the title "Reverend" but since I became aware of his existence in the 1980's, I have yet to hear him ever have anything "Gospel centric" to say.

Jesse Jackson actually chided a Black skinned Congressman (who is also a Democrat) for voting against the health care boondoggle bill. He was quoted as saying, "You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man."

What in the world does being Black (note that I have sufficient respect to capitalize the word) have to do with being intelligent enough to realize that the bill was contrary to The U.S. Constitution and that its passage would effectively cripple the economy and our health care system? Why should one illegally vote in favor of national suicide just because he is Black? For that matter, what does the health care bill have to do with race, Mr. Jackson? Health care affects ALL Americans, not just Blacks. Note that I do not use the fallacious term, "African-American". Not all people of the Negroid race are from Africa and not all dark skinned Americans are of African heritage. If you are an American, you are an American. Period.

Look, folks, if people truly desire "racial reconciliation", then they have to stop being race conscious regarding every last detail of life and stop seeing hidden institutional racism where none exists. If you truly want the races to reconcile, then stop whipping out the race card. There are indeed some unjust cases of racism in this world, but when it does not truly exist, the "little boy who cried wolf" scenario gets mighty old and makes reconciliation harder to accomplish.